Good Article

"Funny how no united fans want to talk about the empty seats against kluj and Debrecen."

Nothing like a crass generalisation to make you look stupid.

England flop

Using the word 'flop' in any description surrounding Paul Scholes is greeted with laughter.

"Nothing like a crass generalisation to make you look stupid."

Absolutely. If only someone would have told Scholes that...

meltonblue (U10617)

I see what you did there

Not actually true in this case though, I think...

Have you read what he actually said Winston? I would say it absolutely classes as a crass generalisation.

meltonblue (U10617)

Which bit?

I'm off now, so have a nice weekend and I'll probably post to agree with you on Monday morning

No worries Winston, you too

This bit -

‘When you come here it just doesn't have a European night feel to it. You go to Liverpool, you go to Old Trafford, you go to Chelsea, they have a special feeling for it.'

Now 9 of 10 of Chelsea's lowest attendances in the past 10 years have been in CL group games and that includes the league cup. Of those attendances, all of them were percentage capacity less than we were the other night.

I have no problem with Scholes criticising a lack of support as long as he is consistent in his views and is using a comparison in the right way.

Instead, he mentioned it at quarter past seven when the ground (and Chelsea's and Liverpools) never fill up at that point fully due to the no alcohol rule at the ground on CL nights anyway.

I don't really understand ITVs stance of putting on a pundit that has a very direct link to United to comment on us when he is not a regular pundit like Neville. The summarisers they used the following night both had affiliations to the clubs that were being shown. Scholes comments would immediately have antagonised him to a lot of the supporters of the team that were watching and I found it both needless and naive to be honest.

That's not to detract from Scholes's brilliance in other areas, I just personally feel that he made a crass generalisation to back up a point that was put across in a way that was either meant as a dig or was naive at best.

Just to post the full comments, as it didn't copy the second bit for some reason -

‘I was lucky enough to play at Old Trafford and we always talked about the atmosphere on a Tuesday night, the special atmosphere you create, and the crowd is rocking when you go out for a warm up.

‘At quarter past seven and there's empty seats everywhere. When you come here it just doesn't have a European night feel to it. You go to Liverpool, you go to Old Trafford, you go to Chelsea, they have a special feeling for it.'

‘They've got the team, they've definitely got the players, the quality is definitely there, but do the crowd realise how lucky they are to be in this competition? I don't think they do.’

meltonblue (U10617)

Hadn't seen that last paragraph, and yes, I agree with you there.